You don't say what your problem is beyond "I couldn't get it to work",
so I am not
clear quite what kind of diagnosis or guidance you seek.
Also, the example here is first in terms of Ax1 Ax2 Ax3, then in terms
of Ax1 Bx1 Cx1.
We have to guess what you mean. I'll take the first.
As your variable label is the same, no loop over variables is necessary
to retrieve it.
Suppose we have
. l
+-----------------+
| Ax1 Ax2 Ax3 |
|-----------------|
1. | 1 4 7 |
2. | 2 5 8 |
3. | 3 6 9 |
+-----------------+
. d
Contains data
obs: 3
vars: 3
size: 21 (99.9% of memory free)
------------------------------------------------------------------------
------
storage display value
variable name type format label variable label
------------------------------------------------------------------------
------
Ax1 byte %8.0g Ax
Ax2 byte %8.0g Ax
Ax3 byte %8.0g Ax
------------------------------------------------------------------------
------
Sorted by:
. local varlab : var lab Ax1
. gen i = _n
. reshape long Ax , i(i)
(note: j = 1 2 3)
Data wide -> long
------------------------------------------------------------------------
-----
Number of obs. 3 -> 9
Number of variables 4 -> 3
j variable (3 values) -> _j
xij variables:
Ax1 Ax2 Ax3 -> Ax
------------------------------------------------------------------------
-----
. label var Ax "`varlab'"
. d
Contains data
obs: 9
vars: 3
size: 90 (99.9% of memory free)
------------------------------------------------------------------------
------
storage display value
variable name type format label variable label
------------------------------------------------------------------------
------
i float %9.0g
_j byte %9.0g
Ax byte %8.0g Ax
------------------------------------------------------------------------
------
Sorted by: i _j
Note: dataset has changed since last saved
If you have Bx*, Cx* as well, the code needs extension but I don't think
new principles come into play.
Nick
[email protected]
Andrea Bennett
I thought I should be able to succeed myself in doing a -reshape long-
and preserve the variable's label, e.g. I have Ax1 Ax2 Ax3 with every
Ax1-Ax3 having the very same label, but even though having a look at
http://www.stata.com/support/faqs/data/variables.html
and trying to borrow from there, I couldn't get it to work. I now
have stored the first variable's label of each variable I need to
reshape (e.g. the label for Ax1 Bx1 Cx1) but cannot get it applied to
the new variables (after reshape) which are called Ax, Bx and Cx.
My code so far:
local lrshp "Ax1 Bx1 Cx1"
foreach v of var `lrshp' {
local l`v' : variable label `v'
if `"`l`v''"' == "" {
local l`v' "`v'"
}
}
Does any of you macro masters have a good line of help?
P.S. If someone got an idea for automatically renaming Ax, Bx and Cx
to A, B, and C, that would be great, too.
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